‘Solo,’ a New James Bond Novel, by William Boyd - The New York Times The New York Times Books |When We Next See Our Hero ... Search When We Next See Our Hero ... ‘Solo,’ a New James Bond Novel, by William Boyd Continue reading the main story Fans of James Bond movies aren’t likely to recognize the hero of this new James Bond novel. Fans of the original Ian Fleming books may have less trouble seeing aspects of their man here, if only dim resemblances. Which doesn’t mean that “Solo,” by William Boyd, isn’t a perfectly well-carpentered and, at times, suspenseful novel. (He was tapped by the Ian Fleming estate to write the latest installment of 007’s adventures.) It just doesn’t feature a hero, who — aside from some pretty generic traits like an eye for the ladies, an ability to kill and an appreciation for expensive cars and a good meal — really feels like the Bond we have come to know over the last five decades. Of course, Mr.

Boyd is working without the tools that filmmakers have at the ready: that atmospheric, instantly recognizable theme music; the razzle-dazzle car chases and explosions; and, most important, the talents of Daniel Craig or Sean Connery, the two actors who have come to embody James Bond so thoroughly on screen. Mr. Boyd’s hero lacks the psychological detail and taut existentialism of Mr. Craig’s Bond, and he lacks the tough savoir-faire of Mr. Connery’s. Photo Credit Patricia Wall/The New York Times He also seems oddly deficient in irony, style and dangerous competence — those essential Bond traits. Often, he comes across as more of a weary civil servant than one of Her Majesty’s licensed-to-kill agents. When we first meet Mr. Boyd’s 007, he could be almost any ordinary, upper-middle class Londoner on the verge of a midlife crisis: worried that he’s coming down with a cold, thinking about changing his hairstyle and fretting about the renovations to his flat. His 45th birthday has summoned memories of his experiences during World War II, and he finds his mind repeatedly drifting back to the past.

Though “Solo” is set in 1969, Bond’s assignment has little to do with the cold war, which powered so many of Fleming’s books. Instead, it involves an African civil war (which seems loosely based on the Nigerian-Biafran war that began in 1967) and a struggle over access to newly discovered oil reserves. Mr. Boyd has wisely divested his Bond of the casual racism that occasionally percolated to the surface in Fleming’s novels, but he seems to have made other nips and tucks to 007 for no discernible reason. Continue reading the main story Mr. Boyd’s Bond drinks whiskey and soda, beer, bourbon, brandy and wine more often than his famous martinis. The car he covets is not the famous Aston Martin, but something called a Jensen Interceptor. And he sets off on his mission without his trusty Beretta or Walther PPK, armed only with some knockout drugs disguised as after-shave and talcum powder. There is little of the original novels’ pulpy energy or the movies’ inventive fantasies here — not to mention less humor, and no glamour whatsoever.

Photo William Boyd Credit Trevor Leighton After being told by M to go to the small West African country called Zanzarim and intercede in its devastating civil war, Mr. Boyd’s Bond starts reading Graham Greene’s “Heart of the Matter” in hopes that it might furnish some insights into the region. Once there, he starts having a crisis of confidence: “As his surroundings had grown more primitive and elemental, so, it seemed, whatever strength, capability and powers he possessed appeared more insubstantial and weak. What was it about Africa that unmanned you so? he wondered, turning over and punching the hard kapok pillow into a more amenable shape for his head — why did the continent so effortlessly remind you of your human frailties?” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Boyd grew up in Ghana and Nigeria and has written brilliantly about the continent before — in the hilarious 1982 novel, “A Good Man in Africa” , and his more expansive and affecting 1983 book, “An Ice-Cream War” . In this case, he does an evocative job of conjuring up the rugged landscape of the fictional Zanzarim, and describes his hero’s adventures there with plenty of authority.

There is, however, an unnerving disjunction between the essentially escapist nature of the Bond genre and this novel’s harrowing descriptions of the Zanzarim civil war and its fallout, including mass murders and villages filled with dead and starving children. There is a similar disjunction between Bond’s traditional opponents — the evil cold-war Smersh, or cartoonish madmen intent on wreaking nuclear havoc or achieving world domination — and the mission Mr. Boyd’s Bond is given in this novel by M: to neutralize (i.e., assassinate) a talented rebel leader known as the African Napoleon, who seems to be prolonging the war and standing in the way of what might benefit Britain, the United States and the oil companies in that region. For a character who, as Simon Winder noted in an insightful 2006 book, “The Man Who Saved Britain,” arrived to uphold British self-esteem just as its vast empire was breaking up, it feels to the reader like an uncomfortably neo-imperialist assignment. To be sure, there is a maniacal villain in “Solo”: one Kobus Breed, a Rhodesian mercenary and clever psychopath, who is also out to exploit an African charity for his own nefarious ends.

Breed has a gruesome penchant for having meat hooks driven through the jaws of his victims and stringing their corpses up in trees, and threatens to do the same to Bond. The violent showdown between them is arguably the most Bond-like sequence in this novel. Readers will root for this Bond, of course. Not because he’s James Bond or a close facsimile thereof, but because he’s this thriller’s designated hero. SOLO Bond is back, in William Boyd's new novel 'Solo' Bond is back, in William Boyd's new novel 'Solo' Jill Lawless, Associated Press Pin it Share Flight attendants pose for photographers with copies of the new James Bond novel "Solo" during a launch photocall outside the Dorchester Hotel in London, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013. "Solo" is set in 1969 and takes the suave British spy, 45 years old and feeling his age, from London's plush Dorchester Hotel to a war-torn West African country and to Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) More LONDON (AP) -- William Boyd has left James Bond stirred, if not shaken.

The British writer has taken on the fictional spy in "Solo," a new 007 novel that balances fidelity to Ian Fleming's iconic character with subtle changes. Bond fans will find much they recognize, along with some surprises — one of which is that in Boyd's mind, James Bond looks like Daniel Day-Lewis. Boyd says Fleming once described the spy as "looking like the American singer-songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Daniel Day-Lewis looks like Hoagy Carmichael." "Solo" is set in 1969, and takes the suave British spy from London's plush Dorchester Hotel to a war-ravaged West African country and on to Washington on a perilous lone mission. Boyd steers Bond away from his big-screen action-hero image and back toward the complex and conflicted character of Fleming's novels. "Even though he's this handsome superspy, when you read the books you realize that he's haunted," Boyd told the Associated Press Wednesday. "He's not a cartoon character. Fleming gave him all his traits, his tastes, his likes and dislikes — and his complexes. Bond has a dark side. He's troubled sometimes. He weeps quite easily. And he makes mistakes.

That's what's so interesting about him." As the book opens, Bond is recovering from birthday celebrations at the Dorchester. He has just turned 45, and is feeling his age. "Bond is mature. He's seasoned," Boyd said. "He's lived a lot, he's a man of experience. He may not run quite as fast as he could when he was 25, but he's seen how life has changed and times have changed. It's a good age for him to be." Boyd, 61, a winner of the Whitbread and Costa book prizes, follows writers including Kingsley Amis and Sebastian Faulks as a successor to Fleming, who died in 1964. His novel is authorized by the Fleming estate, and was launched Wednesday with fanfare befitting a major British cultural export. Boyd posed gamely for a photo call — at the Dorchester, naturally — alongside British Airways flight attendants, clutching a copy of the book in a translucent attache case.

Seven copies of the books were driven in a Jensen convoy to Heathrow Airport, destined for seven cities around the world with ties to Boyd or Bond: Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Zurich, New Delhi, Los Angeles, Cape Town and Sydney. "Solo" hits British bookstores on Thursday and will be published Oct. 8 in the United States and Canada. Espionage is familiar ground for Boyd, whose books include the spy thrillers "Restless" and "Waiting for Sunrise." He has been a Bond fan since he read "From Russia With Love" in the 1960s as "an illicit thrill" after lights-out at his boarding school. He made Ian Fleming a character in his 2002 novel "Any Human Heart." "Solo" takes Bond to Africa, a continent he visited just once in Fleming's works. Boyd, who was born in Ghana and spent much of his youth in West Africa, plunges the spy into Zanzarim, a fictional country with similarities to Nigeria during its 1960s civil war. One Bond uber-fan proclaimed himself happy with Boyd's work.

"It's exciting, it's entertaining, it's fun, it's sexy, it's spectacular," said Ajay Chowdhury of the James Bond International Fan Club. "He's written more than just a James Bond novel. He's written a good, modern political thriller." Many of Fleming's familiar characters put in appearances, from spymaster M and his secretary Miss Moneypenny to Bond's CIA friend Felix Leiter. Fans of Fleming's books will recognize Bond's meticulous approach to clothes — in Africa he dons "a cotton khaki-drill suit, a white short-sleeved Aertex shirt and a navy blue knitted tie" — and his fondness for whisky and fine food (Boyd's Bond mixes a mean vinaigrette). And, of course, his love of attractive women. "Bond is a sensualist," Boyd said. Although the novel includes two enigmatic female foils for 007, Boyd is not keen on the expression "Bond girl." "Bond has relationships with women," he said. "It seems to me he wants a relationship — it's not just casual sex." Boyd also has toned down some of the racism and sexism that can be found in Fleming's books.

He says that by 1969 "society was changing," and Bond would have known it. "I haven't set out to make Bond ultra-modern," Boyd said. "But he's definitely aware of the way the world has changed around him, and his attitudes have changed as well." Boyd certainly hasn't cut down Bond's prodigious smoking or alcohol consumption. But the writer has dared to deviate in the drinks department. "There's a recipe for a dry martini in this novel which is my particular recipe for a dry martini, which I've lent to James Bond for the duration of the novel," Boyd said. Thankfully, it's shaken. Jill Lawless can be reached at Reblog Bond is back, in William Boyd’s new novel ‘Solo’ | The Columbian Real Estate Bond is back, in William Boyd’s new novel ‘Solo’ Flight attendants pose for photographers with copies of the new James Bond novel "Solo" during a launch photocall outside the Dorchester Hotel in London on Wednesday.

"Solo" is set in 1969 and takes the suave British spy, 45 years old and feeling his age, from London's plush Dorchester Hotel to a war-torn West African country and to Washington. Published: September 24, 2013, 5:00 PM A A LONDON — William Boyd has left James Bond stirred, if not shaken. The British writer has taken on the fictional spy in “Solo,” a new 007 novel that balances fidelity to Ian Fleming’s iconic character with subtle changes. Bond fans will find much they recognize, along with some surprises — one of which is that in Boyd’s mind, James Bond looks like Daniel Day-Lewis. Boyd says Fleming once described the spy as “looking like the American singer-songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Daniel Day-Lewis looks like Hoagy Carmichael.” “Solo” is set in 1969, and takes the suave British spy from London’s plush Dorchester Hotel to a war-ravaged West African country and on to Washington on a perilous lone mission. Boyd steers Bond away from his big-screen action-hero image and back toward the complex and conflicted character of Fleming’s novels.

“Even though he’s this handsome superspy, when you read the books you realize that he’s haunted,” Boyd told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “He’s not a cartoon character. Fleming gave him all his traits, his tastes, his likes and dislikes — and his complexes. Bond has a dark side. He’s troubled sometimes. He weeps quite easily. And he makes mistakes. That’s what’s so interesting about him.” As the book opens, Bond is recovering from birthday celebrations at the Dorchester. He has just turned 45, and is feeling his age. “Bond is mature. He’s seasoned,” Boyd said. “He’s lived a lot, he’s a man of experience. He may not run quite as fast as he could when he was 25, but he’s seen how life has changed and times have changed. It’s a good age for him to be.” Boyd, 61, a winner of the Whitbread and Costa book prizes, follows writers including Kingsley Amis and Sebastian Faulks as a successor to Fleming, who died in 1964. His novel is authorized by the Fleming estate, and was launched Wednesday with fanfare befitting a major British cultural export.

Boyd posed gamely for a photo call — at the Dorchester, naturally — alongside British Airways flight attendants, clutching a copy of the book in a translucent attache case. Seven copies of the book were driven in a convoy of vintage Jensen sports cars to Heathrow Airport, destined for seven cities around the world with ties to Boyd or Bond: Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Zurich, New Delhi, Los Angeles, Cape Town and Sydney. “Solo” hits British bookstores on Thursday, published by Jonathan Cape, and will be published Oct. 8 by Harper Collins in the United States and Canada. Espionage is familiar ground for Boyd, whose books include the spy thrillers “Restless” and “Waiting for Sunrise.” He has been a Bond fan since he read “From Russia With Love” in the 1960s as “an illicit thrill” after lights-out at his boarding school. He made Ian Fleming a character in his 2002 novel “Any Human Heart.” “Solo” takes Bond to Africa, a continent he visited just once in Fleming’s works.

Boyd, who was born in Ghana and spent much of his youth in West Africa, plunges the spy into Zanzarim, a fictional country with similarities to Nigeria during its 1960s civil war. Many of Fleming’s familiar characters put in appearances, from spymaster M and his secretary Miss Moneypenny to Bond’s CIA friend Felix Leiter. One Bond uber-fan proclaimed himself happy with Boyd’s work. “It’s exciting, it’s entertaining, it’s fun, it’s sexy, it’s spectacular,” said Ajay Chowdhury of the James Bond International Fan Club. “He’s written more than just a James Bond novel. He’s written a good, modern political thriller.” Fans of Fleming’s books will recognize Bond’s meticulous approach to clothes — in Africa he dons “a cotton khaki-drill suit, a white short-sleeved Aertex shirt and a navy blue knitted tie” — and his fondness for whisky and fine food (Boyd’s Bond mixes a mean vinaigrette). And, of course, his love of attractive women. “Bond is a sensualist,” Boyd said.

Although the novel includes two enigmatic female foils for 007, Boyd is not keen on the expression “Bond girl.” “Bond has relationships with women,” he said. “It seems to me he wants a relationship — it’s not just casual sex.” Boyd also has toned down some of the racism and sexism that can be found in Fleming’s books. He says that by 1969 “society was changing,” and Bond would have known it. “I haven’t set out to make Bond ultra-modern,” Boyd said. “But he’s definitely aware of the way the world has changed around him, and his attitudes have changed as well.” Boyd certainly hasn’t cut down Bond’s prodigious smoking or alcohol consumption. But the writer has dared to deviate in the drinks department. “There’s a recipe for a dry martini in this novel which is my particular recipe for a dry martini, which I’ve lent to James Bond for the duration of the novel,” Boyd said.Thankfully, it’s shaken.

William Boyd tinkers with typecast Bond in new novel Solo | Reuters Fri Sep 27, 2013 | 2:26 PM EDT William Boyd tinkers with typecast Bond in new novel "Solo" Author William Boyd poses for photographers with one of the first copies of his new James Bond book 'Solo,' in front of a Jensen car outside the Dorchester Hotel, both of which feature in the book, in London September 25, 2013. Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett By Paul Casciato and Minnie Brookfield | LONDON LONDON The women, fast cars and a glamorous London hotel set the scene for the launch of a new James Bond novel on Wednesday that sees 007 set out on a renegade mission in the pursuit of justice. British author William Boyd signed copies of "Solo" and sent them off in see-through briefcases with stewardesses riding in vintage sports cars from one of London's poshest hotels to a London airport, just like any 007 adventure begins.

The third officially approved Bond continuation novel - in which Boyd attempts to reconcile the casual racism and misogyny of the original character for a present-day audience - sees Bond ignore spymaster M's orders as he travels from a gritty African civil war in 1969 to Washington at the height of U.S. hegemony. Boyd, 61, a life-long Bond fan, said he set the novel in 1969 in order to create a character who remains true to type, but recognizes that the world of counterculture, Vietnam and sexual liberation is moving away from acceptance of the prejudiced upper class mores of the British imperial world. "There is no doubt if you read, particularly the earlier novels of Fleming, they are very reflective of the kind of unthinking attitudes of a man of his class and era and education would have," Boyd said. "So, I haven't set out to make Bond ultra-modern, but there is no doubt he is aware of how the world has changed around him." The plot of the book focuses on Africa, but spans Europe and the United States as it reveals a realistic, 45-year-old Bond based on the wealth of biographical detail taken from the original Ian Fleming novels.

Along the way, Boyd adds a few of his own touches to the fictional British agent created by Fleming, a military intelligence officer during World War Two. He introduces his own recipe for Bond's martini and another for vinaigrette. He also eschews the Jaguar and Aston Martin cars that have been Bond-branded by the film franchise in favor of extinct British sports car marque Jensen. "It wouldn't be a Bond novel if it didn't have these things in it, but they've all got my own particular spin," Boyd said. DANIEL DAY-LEWIS FOR FILM VERSION? "Solo" will be published in Britain on Thursday by Jonathan Cape - Fleming's original publisher - and available from HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corp, in the United States and Canada from October 8. Fleming published his first Bond novel, "Casino Royale" 60 years ago and penned 13 more before he died in 1964 at the age of 56. But to keep the literary Bond brand alive, his estate has invited various authors to continue the Bond story. The Bond catalogue is one of the most prized in publishing, with global sales of more than 100 million copies.

"Nobody, least of all uncle Ian, could have guessed what would come from that day in early 1952 when he sat at his typewriter in Goldeneye and wrote the first sentence of 'Casino Royale'," Fleming's niece Lucy said at the launch. Most recently, U.S. thriller writer Jeffery Deaver wrote "Carte Blanche" in 2011, and novelist Sebastian Faulks wrote "Devil May Care" to mark Fleming's 100th birthday in 2008. Boyd has won acclaim for writing page-turners with complex plots often set in unique historical milieus, from World War One-era East Africa to 1936 Los Angeles. The author manages to work some of Fleming's own real-life military history into Bond's back-story by placing the younger Bond into a commando unit that was created by Fleming during World War Two. "There's a nice coincidence but it's rooted in historical fact." Boyd said he wrote the novel without any thought of a film treatment and was complimentary about current Bond actor Daniel Craig, though he said he would actually select British/Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis to play his character in "Solo".

"I think Daniel Day-Lewis actually resembles the Bond that Fleming describes." (Editing by Mark Heinrich) Bond is back, in William Boyd’s new novel ‘Solo’ - The Hindu Bond is back, in William Boyd’s new novel ‘Solo’ September 25, 2013 16:30 IST Updated: October 18, 2016 12:46 IST Share Article September 25, 2013 16:30 IST Updated: October 18, 2016 12:46 IST more-in Bond is back, much as we remember him but also subtly different. To the latest Bond author, the dashing secret agent looks a bit like Daniel Day-Lewis. British writer William Boyd, who has written a new official James Bond novel authorised by creator Ian Fleming’s family, says Day-Lewis would be perfect to play the 007 he has created in Solo. Boyd says Fleming once described Bond as “looking like the American singer-songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Daniel Day-Lewis looks like Hoagy Carmichael.” So readers are advised to banish images of Sean Connery or Daniel Craig when they read Solo.

The novel, set in 1969, takes the suave British spy 45 years old and feeling his age from London’s plush Dorchester Hotel to a war-ravaged West African country and onto Washington on a perilous lone mission. Boyd, 61, who has won the Whitbread and Costa book prizes, follows writers including Kingsley Amis and Sebastian Faulks as a successor to Fleming, who died in 1964. Espionage is familiar ground for the author, whose books include the spy thrillers Restless and Waiting for Sunrise. Boyd has been a Bond fan since he read From Russia With Love as “an illicit thrill” after lights-out at his 1960s boarding school. His novel stays faithful to Fleming’s character, from his meticulous approach to clothes to his fondness for cigarettes and whiskey to his love for attractive women. “There’s a lot of eating and drinking. There’s a lot of interest in clothes. Bond is a sensualist,” Boyd said on Wednesday. Although the novel includes two women for 007, Boyd is not keen on the expression “Bond girl.” “Bond has relationships with women,” he said.

“It seems to me he wants a relationship it’s not just casual sex.” Solo was launched on Wednesday with a suitably glamorous photo call at the Dorchester, naturally involving vintage Jensen sports cars and flight attendants. Seven copies of the books were driven in a Jensen convoy to Heathrow Airport, destined for seven cities around the world with ties to Boyd or Bond Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Zurich, New Delhi, Los Angeles, Cape Town and Sydney. The book hits British bookstores on Thursday and will be published on October 8, 2013 in the United States and Canada. null William Boyd tinkers with typecast Bond in new novel "Solo" William Boyd tinkers with typecast Bond in new novel "Solo" Paul Casciato and Minnie Brookfield Tweet Share Author William Boyd poses for photographers with one of the first copies of his new James Bond book 'Solo,' in front of a Jensen car outside the Dorchester Hotel, both of which feature in the book, in London September 25, 2013.

REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett More By Paul Casciato and Minnie Brookfield LONDON (Reuters) - The women, fast cars and a glamorous London hotel set the scene for the launch of a new James Bond novel on Wednesday that sees 007 set out on a renegade mission in the pursuit of justice. British author William Boyd signed copies of "Solo" and sent them off in see-through briefcases with stewardesses riding in vintage sports cars from one of London's poshest hotels to a London airport, just like any 007 adventure begins. The third officially approved Bond continuation novel - in which Boyd attempts to reconcile the casual racism and misogyny of the original character for a present-day audience - sees Bond ignore spymaster M's orders as he travels from a gritty African civil war in 1969 to Washington at the height of U.S. hegemony. Boyd, 61, a life-long Bond fan, said he set the novel in 1969 in order to create a character who remains true to type, but recognizes that the world of counterculture, Vietnam and sexual liberation is moving away from acceptance of the prejudiced upper class mores of the British imperial world.

"There is no doubt if you read, particularly the earlier novels of Fleming, they are very reflective of the kind of unthinking attitudes of a man of his class and era and education would have," Boyd said. "So, I haven't set out to make Bond ultra-modern, but there is no doubt he is aware of how the world has changed around him." The plot of the book focuses on Africa, but spans Europe and the United States as it reveals a realistic, 45-year-old Bond based on the wealth of biographical detail taken from the original Ian Fleming novels. Along the way, Boyd adds a few of his own touches to the fictional British agent created by Fleming, a military intelligence officer during World War Two. He introduces his own recipe for Bond's martini and another for vinaigrette. He also eschews the Jaguar and Aston Martin cars that have been Bond-branded by the film franchise in favor of extinct British sports car marque Jensen. "It wouldn't be a Bond novel if it didn't have these things in it, but they've all got my own particular spin," Boyd said. DANIEL DAY-LEWIS FOR FILM VERSION?

"Solo" will be published in Britain on Thursday by Jonathan Cape - Fleming's original publisher - and available from HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corp, in the United States and Canada from October 8. Fleming published his first Bond novel, "Casino Royale" 60 years ago and penned 13 more before he died in 1964 at the age of 56. But to keep the literary Bond brand alive, his estate has invited various authors to continue the Bond story. The Bond catalogue is one of the most prized in publishing, with global sales of more than 100 million copies. "Nobody, least of all uncle Ian, could have guessed what would come from that day in early 1952 when he sat at his typewriter in Goldeneye and wrote the first sentence of 'Casino Royale'," Fleming's niece Lucy said at the launch. Most recently, U.S. thriller writer Jeffery Deaver wrote "Carte Blanche" in 2011, and novelist Sebastian Faulks wrote "Devil May Care" to mark Fleming's 100th birthday in 2008.

Boyd has won acclaim for writing page-turners with complex plots often set in unique historical milieus, from World War One-era East Africa to 1936 Los Angeles. The author manages to work some of Fleming's own real-life military history into Bond's back-story by placing the younger Bond into a commando unit that was created by Fleming during World War Two. "There's a nice coincidence but it's rooted in historical fact." Boyd said he wrote the novel without any thought of a film treatment and was complimentary about current Bond actor Daniel Craig, though he said he would actually select British/Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis to play his character in "Solo". "I think Daniel Day-Lewis actually resembles the Bond that Fleming describes." (Editing by Mark Heinrich) Bond is back, in William Boyd's new novel 'Solo' Bond is back, in William Boyd's new novel 'Solo' JILL LAWLESS Share View photos Flight attendants pose for photographers with copies of the new James Bond novel "Solo" during a launch photocall outside the Dorchester Hotel in London, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013.

"Solo" is set in 1969 and takes the suave British spy, 45 years old and feeling his age, from London's plush Dorchester Hotel to a war-torn West African country and to Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) More LONDON (AP) — William Boyd has left James Bond stirred, if not shaken. The British writer has taken on the fictional spy in "Solo," a new 007 novel that balances fidelity to Ian Fleming's iconic character with subtle changes. Bond fans will find much they recognize, along with some surprises — one of which is that in Boyd's mind, James Bond looks like Daniel Day-Lewis. Boyd says Fleming once described the spy as "looking like the American singer-songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Daniel Day-Lewis looks like Hoagy Carmichael." "Solo" is set in 1969, and takes the suave British spy from London's plush Dorchester Hotel to a war-ravaged West African country and on to Washington on a perilous lone mission. Boyd steers Bond away from his big-screen action-hero image and back toward the complex and conflicted character of Fleming's novels.

"Even though he's this handsome superspy, when you read the books you realize that he's haunted," Boyd told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "He's not a cartoon character. Fleming gave him all his traits, his tastes, his likes and dislikes — and his complexes. Bond has a dark side. He's troubled sometimes. He weeps quite easily. And he makes mistakes. That's what's so interesting about him." As the book opens, Bond is recovering from birthday celebrations at the Dorchester. He has just turned 45, and is feeling his age. "Bond is mature. He's seasoned," Boyd said. "He's lived a lot, he's a man of experience. He may not run quite as fast as he could when he was 25, but he's seen how life has changed and times have changed. It's a good age for him to be." Boyd, 61, a winner of the Whitbread and Costa book prizes, follows writers including Kingsley Amis and Sebastian Faulks as a successor to Fleming, who died in 1964. His novel is authorized by the Fleming estate, and was launched Wednesday with fanfare befitting a major British cultural export.

Boyd posed gamely for a photo call — at the Dorchester, naturally — alongside British Airways flight attendants, clutching a copy of the book in a translucent attache case. Seven copies of the book were driven in a convoy of vintage Jensen sports cars to Heathrow Airport, destined for seven cities around the world with ties to Boyd or Bond: Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Zurich, New Delhi, Los Angeles, Cape Town and Sydney. "Solo" hits British bookstores on Thursday, published by Jonathan Cape, and will be published Oct. 8 by Harper Collins in the United States and Canada. Espionage is familiar ground for Boyd, whose books include the spy thrillers "Restless" and "Waiting for Sunrise." He has been a Bond fan since he read "From Russia With Love" in the 1960s as "an illicit thrill" after lights-out at his boarding school. He made Ian Fleming a character in his 2002 novel "Any Human Heart." "Solo" takes Bond to Africa, a continent he visited just once in Fleming's works.

Boyd, who was born in Ghana and spent much of his youth in West Africa, plunges the spy into Zanzarim, a fictional country with similarities to Nigeria during its 1960s civil war. Many of Fleming's familiar characters put in appearances, from spymaster M and his secretary Miss Moneypenny to Bond's CIA friend Felix Leiter. One Bond uber-fan proclaimed himself happy with Boyd's work. "It's exciting, it's entertaining, it's fun, it's sexy, it's spectacular," said Ajay Chowdhury of the James Bond International Fan Club. "He's written more than just a James Bond novel. He's written a good, modern political thriller." Fans of Fleming's books will recognize Bond's meticulous approach to clothes — in Africa he dons "a cotton khaki-drill suit, a white short-sleeved Aertex shirt and a navy blue knitted tie" — and his fondness for whisky and fine food (Boyd's Bond mixes a mean vinaigrette). And, of course, his love of attractive women. "Bond is a sensualist," Boyd said.

Although the novel includes two enigmatic female foils for 007, Boyd is not keen on the expression "Bond girl." "Bond has relationships with women," he said. "It seems to me he wants a relationship — it's not just casual sex." Boyd also has toned down some of the racism and sexism that can be found in Fleming's books. He says that by 1969 "society was changing," and Bond would have known it. "I haven't set out to make Bond ultra-modern," Boyd said. "But he's definitely aware of the way the world has changed around him, and his attitudes have changed as well." Boyd certainly hasn't cut down Bond's prodigious smoking or alcohol consumption. But the writer has dared to deviate in the drinks department. "There's a recipe for a dry martini in this novel which is my particular recipe for a dry martini, which I've lent to James Bond for the duration of the novel," Boyd said. Thankfully, it's shaken.

Jill Lawless can be reached at Reblog James Bond, Jeeves and Philip Marlowe Return in New Books - The New York Times The New York Times Books |Star Characters, Spun Anew, May Live Well More Than Twice Search Star Characters, Spun Anew, May Live Well More Than Twice James Bond, Jeeves and Philip Marlowe Return in New Books Continue reading the main story William Boyd’s new James Bond book, “Solo,” takes Britain’s best-known spy to the war-ravaged jungles of West Africa and the insalubrious streets of 1960s Washington, with interludes of sex, drinking, the suggestion of homoerotic torture and other familiar Bondian amusements. But in writing nearly 50 years after the death of Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, Mr. Boyd faced some contemporary dangers. These included: How to appease Bond zealots suspicious of anyone tampering with their beloved character. How to satisfy Fleming’s estate, which hired Mr. Boyd for the project. And how to remain true to his own standards while honoring the spirit of an author he never met and getting inside the head of an anachronistic character he did not create.

Mr. Boyd is not the first to grapple with these kinds of questions. Fleming produced 14 Bond books, but at least 35 more have been published since his death by a parade of talented and less-talented authors, including Kingsley Amis and, most recently, Jeffery Deaver. Also these days — whether by design or by that strange alchemic process by which publishers all do the same thing at the same time — a number of sequels, homages and retellings of tales from long-dead authors are suddenly crowding the shelves. Next month Sebastian Faulks, who wrote a James Bond novel that came out in 2008, is to publish “Jeeves and the Wedding Bells,” a valentine to the singularly exquisite prose and intricate plotting of P. G. Wodehouse. Next year, the British mystery writer Sophie Hannah plans to resurrect Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot in a new novel. And Alexander McCall Smith is writing a contemporary version of Jane Austen’s “Emma,” one in a HarperCollins series that will eventually include a retelling of “Pride and Prejudice” by Curtis Sittenfeld .

Continue reading the main story Meanwhile, the Irish author John Banville (using the pen name Benjamin Black) has written a new Raymond Chandler novel to be published in March. And the British writer Anthony Horowitz in 2011 published “The House of Silk,” a Conan Doyle-esque mystery starring Sherlock Holmes. Advertisement Continue reading the main story What is going on here? These are all successful novelists. Can’t they stick to their own creations? And what about readers? How much do they want to trust cherished fictional characters to the whims and imaginations of people who might not share the original authors’ sense or sensibility? “I think it’s a reader-driven thing,” said Mr. Boyd, who was interviewed on the phone from London and later in person in New York. “If people like the characters and like the stories, they want more of the same. Because authors are finite creatures and stop writing and fall off their perches, these rebootings can satisfy readers’ needs. People want to find out what Elizabeth Bennet did next.” Photo William Boyd wrote about James Bond nearly 50 years after the death of the creator, Ian Fleming. Credit Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times Mr.

Boyd, a critics’ favorite whose books include “A Good Man in Africa” and “Any Human Heart,” said he took on the project at the invitation of the Fleming estate because he already knew a great deal about Fleming and the Bond books. And as the author of two spy novels, he was intrigued by the possibilities — and by the freedom he was given to write the book like himself, not like Fleming. “I wanted to write a gritty, realistic spy novel about a human being, not anything fantastical or silly, with organizations trying to rule the world,” he said. “I wanted him to be a living, breathing 45-year-old man going on a real mission and encountering real people.” Authors’ estates that still hold copyright — in the case of Fleming , this will last until 2034, 70 years after his death — stand to make tidy profits from licensing the rights for sequels, and can also lure new readers to old franchises. “This is bringing a fresh, new interesting life to Bond,” said Corinne Turner, managing director of Ian Fleming Publications. It’s “about the heritage,” she said, not the money. If Mr.

Boyd and the estate tussled, it mostly had to do with details — did Bond drink tea, what was his relationship with M? — not with plot or style. Mr. Boyd tended to prevail in those discussions. “He laid down a challenge and said, ‘You will not be able to find a flaw in my Bond facts,’ ” Ms. Turner said. Still, some readers and critics question the worth of such enterprises. “Our civilization echoes to the sound of the bottom of barrels being industriously scraped,” David Mitchell wrote in The Observer of London. “No franchise must be left unexploited, no film unremade, no TV series unreimagined in our commercial desperation to avoid the undignified recourse of trying to think of a new idea.” (For good measure, he said that hiring a “proper novelist” instead of a “hack” to write a sequel was “a bit like paying an actual film star to have sex with you rather than a prostitute.”) Advertisement Continue reading the main story And Mr. Boyd has received mixed reviews from the public and from critics, perhaps because the James Bond many readers have come to expect is not Fleming’s at all, but the much more exciting cinematic version.

“The guy can clearly write, and he’s obviously done his homework,” a reader named Derek W. Ridgers wrote on the British Amazon Web site. “It’s just that it’s so very dull as a book.” Photo Credit Patricia Wall/The New York Times In The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani wrote that Mr. Boyd’s version was “a perfectly well-carpentered and, at times, suspenseful novel,” but that his hero often “comes across as more of a weary civil servant than one of Her Majesty’s licensed-to-kill agents.” Mr. Faulks said in an e-mail that his Wooster-Jeeves book is meant “as a thank-you letter to an author who has brought so much pleasure, and as a possible gateway for younger readers to pass through to the real thing.” But he has encountered a torrent of unflattering commentary from Wodehouse aficionados. “Vain, arrogant, hubris, delusional, lunatic folly, fat bearded git — these are some of the more printable terms that have been applied,” Mr. Faulks said. “I agree with all of them, though I am not that fat.” Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box.

Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy As for Mr. McCall Smith’s plans to rework “Emma,” various commenters groused on the BBC Web site that if there was ever a case to be made for not tampering with perfection, this was it. Mr. McCall Smith, though, said his assignment was simply to use “Emma” as a starting point for his own imagination. Austen has developed into a cottage industry, with reimagined books and movies — “Clueless,” “The Jane Austen Book Club,” “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” to name a few — appearing all the time. And the publishing world is littered with the entrails of authorized sequels to Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind,” including Emma Tennant’s “Tara” (the book fell apart when she fell out with the Mitchell estate) and Alexandra Ripley’s “Scarlett,” a commercial success but a critical disaster . Mr. Boyd said he enjoyed steeping himself in Bond’s world and then extrapolating.

He gave Bond a World War II back story, for example, and imagined that because Bond had been orphaned at 11, he might look to M, his boss, for some kind of (one-sided) emotional relationship. (He also discovered Bond’s enjoyment of cooking and included his own recipe for vinaigrette .) One potential happy side effect for him and other writers of books like these is that it can liberate them, allowing them to retain their own writerly essence while stepping outside themselves, however briefly. But, Ms. Turner said, authors of Mr. Boyd and Mr. Faulks’s stature were unlikely to do it more than once. Advertisement “They find it fun and enjoyable,” she said, “but they’ve got their own books to write.” Correction: October 25, 2013 An article on Wednesday about the new James Bond novel by William Boyd, “Solo,” and other sequels to or retellings of works by authors who are dead misidentified the author who wrote the most recent James Bond novel before Mr. Boyd’s.

He is Jeffery Deaver, whose “Carte Blanche” was published in 2011 — not Sebastian Faulks, whose Bond book, “Devil May Care,” was published in 2008. A version of this article appears in print on October 23, 2013, on Page A3 of the New York edition with the headline: Star Characters, Spun Anew by Different Authors. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Solo: A James Bond Novel: Amazon.co.uk: William Boyd: 9780224097475: Books By Amon Avis on 30 Sept. 2013 Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase Promoting Solo in the Guardian newspaper (28/9/13) Boyd printed an 'interview' between himself and James Bond from 1969. Fun but it helped me put my finger on it- this is a 007 novel written as though Ian Fleming never existed.

While it's obvious from the blurb that Boyd eschewed a classic Bond plot (playing cat & mouse vs supervillain), and clear that he hasn't attempted Fleming's voice, the wholesale dumping of the thriller style is a courageous mistake. The result is a curate's egg, lacking in action and pace but compelling in tone and atmosphere. To start with the positive, he's got Bond pretty darn close. Beyond the welcome knitted tie, eggs, fags, etc, there's an appreciation for the dry, humane, pernickety but coldly professional hero. His voice especially shines through: be it grumbles at the service industry, or an impressively unfusty appreciation of young people's fashion and freedom. The mischief in Richmond didn't worry me from a character point of view: silly, reckless, ungallant, man without milk tray but very human. Moreover the period setting is consummate, effortlessly weaving in the old world trappings that were a powerful counterpoint to 007's extravagant adventures: Dimple Haig, the old pound note, Jensen FF. By extension, the undoubted high light of the book is the fictional African failed state.

Boyd's background obviously informs the wildlife, geography, politics of Zanzarim; the late colonial setting is perfect for Bond who operates best on a thin veneer of civilisation, the private club never more than a few steps from the urban guerrilla. Remoteness and exoticism are at the heart of the best Bond outings, and Zanzarim must be a contender for the most alien: vivid, horrific and haunting. Read more › William Boyd's Solo is a success as it assigns James Bond a new mission | Books | The Guardian William Boyd William Boyd's Solo is a success as it assigns James Bond a new mission The author has stepped into Ian Fleming's shoes and taken 007 in a different and, dare I say it, better direction William Boyd's new James Bond novel Solo is a brilliant imitation that’s occasionally superior to Ian Fleming's prototype. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images Share on Messenger Close William Boyd will be pleased to have the successful launch of Solo behind him. Few of 007's missions against those sinister mega crooks – Dr No, Goldfinger et al. – could be as fraught with jeopardy as the invitation to pick up the dangerous mantle of Ian Fleming.

As in the best classical quests, the rewards are mouthwatering but the penalties for failure excruciating. Consider the perils he faces: we know Bond was born in 1924, which would have him pushing 90. An agent on a Zimmer frame with a licence to kill? Not plausible. Contemporary writers need to put him back into his prime – but do that, and you encounter another set of snares. Fleming and Bond are inextricably linked in ways – xenophobia, male chauvinism, a taste for sadomasochism – that may give the contemporary reader pause, while Bond's world – the late imperial Britain of the 1950s, rightly identified by many critics as an elegiac version of an England from Fleming's youth – is now at one with Nineveh and Tyre. It's defunct, caput, irrelevant and irretrievably lost. And all that's before, stepping into Fleming's shoes, the sorcerer's apprentice tackles the cheap, thrilling, glitzy vanity mirror of Fleming's prose. Enough said.

So it's good to report that Boyd has immersed himself in the character, the author and his oeuvre and come up with an Afro-American adventure that's triumphantly the equal of the great Bond adventures, Casino Royale and From Russia, with Love. In Boyd's novel, Bond is dispatched to a fictional west African state to track down its warlord, the Scorpion, nearly dies, and then pursues a score-settling mission to the US where he reconnects with his old chum and CIA man, Felix Leiter. It's not the real thing – how could it be? – but, dare one say, a brilliant imitation that's occasionally superior to the prototype. For the moment, the predators in the shark/alligator pool can stop circling. Dr No, Goldfinger et al. have met their match. Boyd IS Bond.

Solo, by William Boyd, is latest novel to follow in Ian Fleming's footsteps, which charts spy 'recklessly motivated by revenge' Published: 26 Sep 2013 It's 1969, the King's Road is swinging and William Boyd has a lunch rendezvous with the subject of his latest novel, Solo – secret agent, 007 Published: 28 Sep 2013 William Boyd finds out all you ever wanted to know about Bond – his earliest memory, his most treasured possession, his most unappealing habit Published: 28 Sep 2013 What's the secret of James Bond's success? The deadly villains Ian Fleming devised for him to defeat. Test your knowledge of the evil geniuses who have dared to confront Commander Bond since Casino Royale Published: 27 Sep 2013

Question: William Boyd’s 2013 novel Solo is the latest outing for which character?
Answer: BOND